Poetry is art through the expression of words filled with emotions. The reader determines the beauty by what one deciphers. – Tabitha Edwards-Walton First time author Tabitha Edwards-Walton brings the reader into her observations on relationships, love, parenting and more. You may find yourself with her as she walks along the ocean and muses on love realized and love lost. Whether you open this volume as relax on the porch after a work day or take it along when you hike or sit in a waiting room, Poetic Diversities will make the time past in a good way.
Habitation of Honey can be one of the means God uses to prepare the way of the Lord. As John the Baptist in the wilderness ate wild HONEY, he was growing strong in spirit for the day he would recognize the Messiah. He immersed himself in the Word of God, «honey» for his soul, so he could say «Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.» Just so, the Body of Christ should be preparing herself today, «eating the honey» of the Word of God, to be a herald like John the Baptist for the second coming of the Messiah May you grow strong in spirit by partaking of these biblical poems and songs.
English poet John Milton’s 17th century epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” is the work for which he is best known and which would solidify his reputation as one of the greatest poets of all time. A classic retelling of Biblical legend, the poem relates the stories of the war in heaven, the fall of man, and the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. First depicted in Revelation, Milton portrays the angel Lucifer’s denial of God’s authority over him and the failed rebellion that he leads as a consequence of this belief. Lucifer is cast out of Heaven and into Hell by God for his betrayal. The temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan and their subsequent fall from innocence forms the other major narrative arc in “Paradise Lost.” As described in the work by Milton his purpose in writing this epic masterpiece was to “justify the ways of God to men.” Milton’s work is one of sublime and extraordinary beauty which has inspired readers and been analyzed by critics ever since its original publication in 1667. This edition includes an introduction by M. Macmillan.
Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry, Robert Frost is best remembered for his depictions of early 20th century rural New England life and for his command of American colloquial speech. Criticized by some as being out of touch with the Modernist movement in poetry exemplified by contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings, it is probably in fact his adherence to traditionalism that so endeared him to his fans. Literary critic Randall Jarrell described Frost as one of “the greatest of the American poets of [the 20th] century” whose works were serious and honest and although often dealt with rather simple subjects were underlaid with an intense thematic complexity. For example the title poem of this collection “The Road Not Taken” is often interpreted as one about regret over choices not made and exemplifying the benefit of not following the crowd. Frost implied that it is however a comment about indecision and finding meaning in inconsequential decisions. Collected together here are three of Frost’s earliest collections, “A Boy’s Will”, first published in 1913, “North of Boston”, first published in 1914, and “Mountain Interval”, first published in 1916.
Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” or “The Flowers of Evil” was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book’s publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire’s work but ordered that six poems in particular should be banned from subsequent publication. In this edition we reproduce the 1861 edition along with the six censored poems. Also included in this volume is the collection of 51 short prose poems by Charles Baudelaire entitled “Paris Spleen” which was first published posthumously in 1869. Inspired by Aloysius Bertrand’s “Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot” or “Gaspard of the Night – Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callot,” Baudelaire remarked that he had read Bertrand’s work at least twenty times for starting “Paris Spleen.” A commentary on Parisian contemporary life, Baudelaire remarked on his work that “These are the flowers of evil again, but with more freedom, much more detail, and much more mockery.” Rich with symbolism, these works are rightly considered classics of the modernist literary movement. This edition includes an introduction by James Huneker.
First published in 1609, “The Sonnets” of William Shakespeare are a collection of 154 loosely connected 14 line poems. Considered by many to be among some of the greatest love poetry ever written much debate surrounds the context of the poetry. It has been suggested that the work may be semi-autobiographical but no real evidence firmly supports this notion. The themes of the poems contained within this volume are varied and include such subjects as the passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. Some scholars have interpreted the collection as a parody of the 300-year-old tradition of Petrarchan love sonnets. This analysis arises out of the fact that Shakespeare inverts conventional gender roles creating a more complex depiction of human love. Seen as a new type of love poetry when first written, “The Sonnets” largely languished in obscurity until the renewed interest in Shakespeare’s work which accompanied the Romantic literary movement of the 19th century. Regardless of Shakespeare’s intent behind the writing of “The Sonnets”, these poems can be appreciated individually or as a whole as examples of William Shakespeare’s true literary genius. This edition includes a preface and annotations by Henry N. Hudson, an introduction by Charles Harold Herford, and a biographical afterword.
Due to a lack of biographical evidence regarding the identity of Homer it has been suggested that the two great works attributed to him, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” may, in fact, be the work of multiple authors passed down through a long oral tradition. While scholarship on the subject will likely never definitely prove one way or the other, it is now generally accepted that these two great epic poems are the work of a single Greek author, Homer, who lived sometime during the 9th century BC. Set during a few weeks in the final year of the Trojan War, “The Iliad” is a classical epic poem concerning a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. While encompassing just a brief period of the Trojan War the poem relates events leading up to and following the few weeks that encompass the setting of the poem giving the reader a comprehensive perspective of the Trojan War. Part romanticized historical narrative, part mythological epic, the “Iliad” is widely recognized as one of the most important works from classical antiquity. Along with the “Odyssey,” it would establish Homer as one the most influential authors to ever have lived. This edition follows the verse translation of Alexander Pope, and includes an introduction and notes by Theodore Alois Buckley.
What started as a small sequence of poems about the Starbucks logo grew to monstrous proportions after the poet fell under a siren spell herself. <i>All Day I Dream About Sirens</i> is both an ancient reverie and a screen-induced stupor as these poems reckon with the enduring cultural fascination with siren and mermaid narratives as they span geographies, economies, and generations, chronicling and reconfiguring the male-centered epic and women’s bodies and subjectivities.
Like the neutrino observatory of its title, <i>Midday at the Super-Kamiokande</i> seeks “glimpses of the obscure” to carve out meaning, alternately a resistance to rationalism and its champion. It aims to tear through abstraction with the concrete, either catastrophic – road accidents, nuclear explosions, floods, extinction, eviction, suicide – or quotidian, finding threads of love, empathy, and belief within the fray. These poems delight in aphorism, paradox, puns, and wit, each stanza a closure that moves tangentially to the next, each poem more bricolage than narrative, more shuffle than playlist. These are poems with no middle. These are poems of beginnings, and of ends.
• Liem is the Assistant Editor of <i>Vallum Magazine</i> in Montreal, and is well connected in the poetry community.<br> •Violence against women is a lightning rod for discussion in today’s media. Liem’s book gives voice to women who die as a result of this violence, and gives them a voice instead of them being just a mere statistic.<br>